


The Gift of Giving

by RembrandtsWife



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Future Fic, M/M, careers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:37:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8982133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RembrandtsWife/pseuds/RembrandtsWife
Summary: What do you give the boyfriend who has a lucrative NHL contract?





	

Bitty had known that this Christmas was going to be a special one. He was a college graduate now and living with the man of his dreams. Jack had come out as a bisexual pro athlete with a boyfriend and the world hadn't come to an end; neither had his career. Jack made frankly obscene amounts of money and liked spending it rather than sitting on it. So the 15-piece set of All-Clad copper core cookware from Jack wasn't exactly a surprise, though it was still a little breathtaking. (And *shiny*, oh my *Lord*....)

Bitty had therefore thought long and hard about what he was going to give Jack. Learning some of Jack's favorite holiday recipes and mastering them had been a given (and he was proud of the fondant mushrooms on the bouche de Noel). Buying him some shirts and sweaters that flattered him was just Eric's job, right? as Jack's (much more stylish) boyfriend. The fact remained that while Coach and Mother were perfectly comfortable, he *had* gone to college on a sports scholarship and he didn't have a lot of money that was his and his alone. Getting a job after graduation had been understandably less urgent than moving in with Jack, getting to know his routine, meeting his teammates, and adjusting to being the official S.O. of a professional athlete.

Commissioning a painting from Lardo had seemed like a great idea. Jack had already bought a painting and a sculpture from her, but commissioning something was a little different. And he'd been able to pay her in installments, which made paying for it a lot easier. She had worked with photographs and video of the Samwell Men's Hockey team, on and off the ice, to create a multimedia piece that included images of all the Haus bros as well as a large central depiction of the team in action, a blur of strong red figures against white ice, dark crowds. Some people would have been speechless with amazement, as Bitty was over the cookware; Jack Zimmerman, normally a man of few words, became voluble with delight, exclaiming over every little detail. 

The cookware had been handwashed and deployed in the kitchen; Bitty was looking forward to using it tomorrow, when the Zimmermans were coming over for dinner. The painting had been hand-delivered by the artist, who had helped them hang it over the fireplace and stayed for a couple hours of talking, drinking, and munching Bitty's holiday baking. 

The ham for dinner was in the oven. The side dishes only needed warming up. As the sun set, the living was lit only by the fire on the hearth and the glow of lights on the tree, electric candles in the windows. Quiet classical Christmas music was playing from Jack's phone. Curled up with his boyfriend on the sofa, warm and cozy, hands entwined, Bitty felt that everything was perfect.

So why did he feel less than satisfied? 

Beside him, Jack shifted, squeezed his hand and let go. "Bits," he said, "I've been thinking about something."

_He's going to break up with me,_ Eric thought. Then, _He's going to ask me to marry him!_ Both thoughts made his heart shake his whole body with its rhythm.

"We've talked a lot about my future--my career. And I want you to be part of that." He smiled in a way that made Eric lean toward the marriage theory rather than the break-up theory. "But we don't really talk about your future. Like, your career. If you want one. What you want to do."

It wasn't something Bitty had wanted to talk about, or even think about. Being with Jack seemed more important than anything else, always. It felt so good, so right. Still--

He opened his mouth and Jack said, gently, "No, Eric, hear me out, okay?"

He knew it was serious when Jack used his given name.

"You've got your degree. You've got amazing baking skills. You're good on the ice--you probably couldn't go NHL--"

_Definitely couldn't,_ Bitty thought--

"but you could go back to figure skating, or coaching peewee hockey like I did, you'd be great at that. There's all that social media stuff you do. You could do a lot of things." Jack took a deep breath. "I guess I'm trying to say two things at once here. One is that I want you to have a job or a career or whatever kind of work you want. Yeah, I can support both of us, easy, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do what you want to do."

Eric sat very very still.

"The other is that--you don't have to do anything you don't want to. Because I do have money, lots of it. So if you want to get a master's degree in food studies, or go to a prestigious cooking school, or upgrade your vlog into a real cooking show--there's money for that. And time. I mean, you don't have to decide right away. You give me so much support with my career. I'm willing to do whatever I can to support you."

The tight knot that had lain buried in Bitty's chest for weeks (and maybe longer) suddenly loosened, softened, and let go. Jack looked so earnest and hopeful, his hand on Bitty's again, and this was the thing Bitty had been missing, the Christmas gift he most wanted: To know that he had something worth giving. 

"Thank you so much, sweetheart." He stretched up and kissed Jack. "Maybe... maybe it's time to talk about all that."


End file.
